1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical image interpretation support system and a medical image interpretation support method for supporting interpretation of a medical image, and to a program therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Progresses have been made in development of medical image interpretation support systems wherein medical images obtained by various types of modalities such as CT (Computed Tomography) and MR (Magnetic Resonance) are stored in databases and extracted from the databases upon necessity for display on monitors or the like. By using such a medical image interpretation support system, not only a medical image obtained in a recent examination but also a medical image obtained in the past and extracted from a database can be displayed on a monitor.
In a medical image interpretation support system having a similar case search function to extract similar case images that are similar to a case of a patient from a database, a physician as an image interpreter can use the similar case images displayed on a monitor as reference images. Such systems having the similar case search function have been described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20030013951 and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,925,199.
In the systems described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20030013951 and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,925,199, similar case images that are similar to an image of a patient as a subject are displayed on a monitor, regardless of whether the patient's image as a target of interpretation (an interpretation target image) for a physician is an image obtained in a first examination of the patient (a first examination image) or an image obtained in a later examination (in a follow-up examination). However, in reality, the content and quantity of similar case images as references for diagnosis of a first examination image are different from those as references for diagnosis of an image obtained in a follow-up examination. Therefore, conventional systems having the similar case search function are inconvenient, since the systems cannot efficiently search for and display similar case images according to the number of times of imaging diagnosis.